News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-10-13

his habit to spend
from one to three hours daily in the
luxurious apartments set aside for the
choice spirits of the club.
He had hesitated on this occasion, not
because he had ever failed in being a
welcome accession to the groups of
young men usually to be found engaged
IN the occupations of the place, but,
without doubt, because of the unusual
circumstances environing his own per-
sonaity. For, the fact is, it was the
morning of Darby's marriage day.
That evening in the multiform bene-
factions of the gods, to him, were to be
crowned by the gift of wife of his own
hearts choosing. Under these circum-
stances, therefore, it was perhaps natur-
al that the bridegroom-elects should have
hesitated to brave the attention his
presence was sure to call forth in the
rooms of the Mecenas. Luckily, when
he entered, there were not half a doz-
en- fellows present and these were in a
group at one of the tables, evidently
engrossed in the discussion of some sub
iect calculated to divide interest with
the topic naturally suggested by the un-
conscious self-consciOusness of the new
arrival.
They were high-bred young bloods
those of Maecenas. The courtesy of
their greeting to Darby may have been
a little more pronounced than usual,
that was all Not the lift of an eyehd,
as they made room for him, betrayed
cognizance of the happy destiny they
knew to be imminent for him. His
best man expectant, Hardin Golden, dis
played admirable ,fHesse in setting all
parties at ease.
eve have Just been discussing the
freak of fate which has victimized poor
Darrow" he said addressing Darby.
"Darrow-what of him 2"
''Man alive Have you not heard
Why, the papers are full of the shock
ing occurrence.
''The papers l have neglected to look
into: II hare been otherwise engag
ed" stammered Darby.
Hardin nodded.
81 understand. Well, Darrow, poor
fellow, met an awful death last even
ing"
E'It can't be possible, Why, walk
ed with him on Carlton Terrace as late
as 6 O'Clock, and when [ parted from him
he told me he was going directly home. "
eyes. Yet it was not two blocks distant
from the terrace where he was tripped
by the trailing loop of a telegraph wire.
As fate would have it, at the same NOM
ent there was a train running at full
speed upon the elevated road above, the
buffer caught in the wire, and the loco
motive rushed on, dragging the coils in
which Darrow, poor devil, was being
tossed like shuttle cock. Over and
over he was whirled, sometimes above
the roofs of houses, the wire broke, and
he was dropped into an obscure street,
mangled and hfeless.
Darby shivered; he made no com
ment. 1t was an awful story to have
heard on his bridal morning. How
might mortal bribe Fate, who rode as
in the car of Juggernaut, grinding out
the lives of the happy and wretched
alike!
The fippaney of Bret Crosby Jared
upon his mood.
cit strikes me that's about the style
Deaths adopted these later days" com
mented that young fashionable, break
ing the silence. "He's an ill-mannered
monster that's not got the politeness of
French dancing master, when he
pounees upon and waltzes off to destruc-
ton with a fellow, as he's done with
Darrow."
"Fata riam fncenient." muttered
Grantly. "There were Giles, Fleming
and HoyE, as we'll as Darrow."
There was an uncomfortable pause.
The tragic death which had befallen the
quartette of their members in the past
eighteen months were not enlivening
events to revert to-
''The mare that broke Fleming's neck
had been landed but a week in this
country from Arabia" said Bret Crosby;
Zone would think she had crossed con-
hnents and seas, spuTred of the three
fateful hags, so speedily did she accom-
plsh Flemings doom on her arrival"
''The fate that overlook Tom Giles
was not less strange" commented Har-
din; sit was a chance in a thousand. To
be struck, at a distance of fifty feet, by a
pin from a passing locomotive is to me
the very irony of fate .
The attempt at pleasantly evoked but
feeble smile. The subject was one
that struck uncomfortahly upon the
nerves of the group.
Golden shook himself together. "It
would be the splitting of a hair to me, -
he said, cynically, ''to make choice be-
tween the bolt of iron and the bolt of
electricity that killed Hoyt. 1t was hard
for fellow to be done to death by a
charge of lightning when there was not
cloud in the sky"
"Hoyt had been warned not to touch
the battery wires, interposed Hairston
Grantly shugged his shoulders.
81 believe you had also warned Jack
Fleming not to back that beastly Ara
bian, had you not, Hardin!"
Hardin assented.
The Fates lead the willing and
drag the unwilling" quoted Grantly.
"Who was there to warn Giles or Oar
row.
"For the matter of that, fippantly
returned Crosby, "who can warn against